Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Any way to hack or unlock the Intel HM70 Chipset?

Jan 20, 2015 1:04AM PST

I was recently given a broken laptop as the previous owner said it no longer worked. It is a cheapo from Wal-Mart so I figured it was just something I would strip for parts and junk the rest. The unit is a Gateway ne56r31u with a Celeron B830 and the HM70 Chipset. Well I assumed it would be junk but the unit was actually pretty clean without soda and cigarette smoke which seems to have been the norm for me lately. It powered right up and went to a screen where it appears to have been locked by a virus. I wiped the OS and the unit now works like a champ so it was a simple fix.

It looks like this is a Sandy Bridge (2nd gen) CPU installed in an Ivy Bridge (3rd gen) chipset motherboard. Intel and other sites don't even officially show the B830 as supported by the chipset but it obviously is. I have seen the same in earlier Core 2 Duo machines and such too.

Most HM70 units I have come across have a BGA soldered on CPU and are non-upgradeable. This one is s standard socket so opens up some SLIGHT upgrade possibilities.

Further research revealed there there is nothing stopping a person from installing a full blown Core i-series CPU as long as it is 35W or less. The problem is that Intel has introduced an artificial limitation to handicap the unit by making it turn off after 30 minutes like clockwork. It is a hard shutdown like when a system overheats. People who have done this have monitored temps which were fine and always find it turns off at 30 minutes to the second.

Is there a way to make this chipset support anything more than a Celeron or Pentium Dual Core as that is what it is limited to? Any BIOS hacks or similar? I hear this limitation is very low level and integral to the southbridge and is much harder to get around than some of these limits in the past.

I figure there are risks to bricking a perfectly good unit and I couldn't find anything about unlocking this anywhere so I have gone ahead and ordered a Pentium Dual Core 2030M which is the highest CPU supported by the chipset for $25 on eBay. I have already flashed the BIOS to the latest version. Besides not having quite as good of onboard video, this CPU actually outdoes some of the early Core i3 units so I don't think it will be too bad.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
No.
Jan 20, 2015 1:20AM PST
- Collapse -
True but...
Jan 20, 2015 2:59AM PST

This is true but the limitation appears to be an artificial one to segment this low-end chipset from the mainstream one (HM77). I have seen numerous references to people installing Core i3 and i5 processors in these but they shut down at 30 minutes to the second because Intel doesn't approve of this, not because of an actual limitation. The best CPU this unit will accept is a Pentium Dual Core 2030M (per Intel specs) and I ordered one on eBay last night for $25.

My unit also doesn't support USB 3.0 although the chipset does support this feature. I read the specs online and also didn't see any of the markings pertaining to USB 3.0 or the blue color the ports normally are either so it is USB 2. I also checked in device manager and found nothing about USB 3.0. It was a Wal-Mart laptop so what do you expect from something marketed to people who buy computers based on the lowest price and give little or no consideration to the quality and performance of the unit?

Conor

- Collapse -
I've run into folk that think it's a conspiracy.
Jan 20, 2015 3:03AM PST

Not much you can do with them.
Bob

- Collapse -
PS. Your post makes me think
Jan 20, 2015 3:11AM PST

You are used to desktops. As to the USB 3.0 thing, you have a walmart special. It was cheap or free so what to do but have fun?
Bob

- Collapse -
It kinda is but.
Jan 20, 2015 3:18AM PST

It kinda is a conspiracy but the consumer also allows this type of product to be made buy buying what I consider to be cheap disposable units. At least the CPU is a socketed type on this unit and the max upgrade isn't a bad one for what it is. Sure, it will never be a gaming unit but would be perfect for multmedia playback and basic tasks like e-mail and web browsing.

I get people bringing me the kind with a BGA soldered on CPU, barely any RAM, and the like wanting to upgrade. I tell them these are not meant for upgrade and you will end up spending more on an upgrade than it is worth in the first place. I did end up with a Chromebook left behind once and ended up swapping a motherboard from a similar Windows based netbook into it once. I was able to resell the pulled Chromebook MB on eBay and nearly break even on that swap. I also made sure to get a slightly upgraded CPU on the replacement MB as these were soldered on BGA Pentium Dual Cores. I did later have to swap the touchpad with a Windows one too as that was proprietary to Chromium and I was sick of always having to have a USB external along for the ride.

Conor

- Collapse -
Sounds like you need to get back to desktops.
Jan 20, 2015 3:41AM PST

That's where all the part changing action is.

As to the USB thing, with such small USB 32GB drives I just carry a few or leave them installed. It's not that I need more storage. Just last month I snagged a 500GB 7mm high laptop drive new for 46 bucks.

My wife upgraded here travel laptop to a X200CA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231527&Tpk=N82E16834231527 and we swapped the HDD for a SSD. It's very nice. I can't see why I would replace the celeron.
Bob

- Collapse -
I am mostly on laptops, actually...
Jan 20, 2015 4:42AM PST

I don't even have any desktops currently in service for my own use. I have 2x Sandy Bridge based laptops with Core i5 and i7 that have 2x USB 3.0 ports. I also have a Haswell i7 with 4x USB ports. I also have a couple cheap Acer netbooks using the same chipset and setup very similar with no USB 3.0.

The i7 units are 17 inchers so they have a secondary hard drive bay in which I have a 960GB SSD. The primary bay has a 480GB SSD. They are basically mirror images except one is newer.

The i5 Sandy is a 14 inch so it has one HDD bay and one for the optical drive. I put a Samsung 840 in the primary and a 1TB spinner in a caddy/adapter that allows one to put a hard drive or SSD in place of the optical drive. I have a LG Blu Ray writer connected through the USB 3.0 bus installed in an external USB 3 enclosure. This is my media computer and the one I posted about "washing" and "baking" in the oven in an earlier post to clean off the board. I guess I did something right as it just keeps on working. I have a 46 inch TV connected through the HDMI port and it plays/streams 1080p like a champ.

Yeah, I agree. The cheap Wal-Mart unit was basically free so I view it as a toy to play with. It had a single 4gb memory module and free slot so I dropped a spare 4GB in it and have it maxed out at 8gb. I figured $25 to max out the CPU and greatly improve the performance also wasn't a bad deal. I am not complaining as it was free and I really don't need it right now but see no reason not to play with it for a while and max out the CPU. It would make a great replacement for my media computer in case it decides to crater out for some reason. My gut tells me that this one is in it for the long haul if it has been stable this long after my washing.

I have an AMD based Acer that was left behind that is extremely similar to this Gateway (I know they are the same company). The AC adapter and batteries are the same. The previous owner decided to attempt repairs and ripped the connectors for the keyboard and touchpad so externals must be used to operate this unit. I like this one as it is great for updating the firmware on many solid state drives that don't play nice with Intel SATA chipsets. Besides this, it is a total slow POS that the Gateway runs circles around.

Conor

- Collapse -
A first to me.
Jan 20, 2015 5:51AM PST

I think I read that on some SSD but as firmware evolved I haven't seen that at the office for over a year. But folk's memory and well the internet memory is forever.

The one thing I didn't note and should have is the number of times I've found a CPU with no heatsink compound. I've had clients tell me it's optional.
Bob

- Collapse -
It is mainly the SandForce that don't like Intel Chipsets
Jan 20, 2015 6:05AM PST

I still have had issues updating firmwares for SSDs with a SandForce controller. I remember this being a problem on the very first SATA 2 SSD I purchased and it is still a problem today. Using an AMD chipset seems to solve all those problems. All I do is slide the caddy adapter into the optical drive bay, boot the computer up, update the firmware, and then put the SSD back where it belongs. Other SSD controllers don't seem to fight with Intel setups for some reason. Being that Intel is probably the biggest maker of chipsets, this seems to be something SandForce should correct.

I have only seen a firmware update brick one SSD in my life. It was one of these in an Intel machine so I don't take chances now.

I have heard of people who don't use heatsink compound and many actually don't have problems. I did have a Wal-Mart desktop come in once. One of my issues with Wal-Mart units is that they will cut corners anywhere they can to save like 50 cents including omitting heatsinks from critical locations. This desktop was actually a Sandy Bridge i5 around 3.0 GHZ with 8GB RAM made by HP so I had high hopes for it. It was doggedly slow and had intermittent freezes and reboots. Apparently both Dell and HP decided around this time that they would omit heatsinks from the chipset of the motherboard in order to save a buck or two on each unit manufactured for Wal-Mart, black friday, or other economy units. This unit was continually throttling in order to prevent meltdown. I read several cases of this being an issue on the web for the model I was working on. The motherboard had holes for a heatsink to be mounted and was essentially the same board used in better units so there was a way to order heatsinks for the unit and installation was simple. The woman who had the computer didn't want to spend the $50 that the parts cost from HP and decided to just use it the way it was. A couple bucks in heatsinks for the manufacturer are what stood between this being a pretty nice i5 system and a doggedly slow POS. Unfortunately I also read that it was just a matter of time until the motherboard died from slowly being cooked to death.

Conor

- Collapse -
Here's how I choose my SSD's
Jan 20, 2015 6:26AM PST
- Collapse -
Sandforce is still made
Jan 20, 2015 8:29AM PST

I don't see it on that list either so they don't view it as a good value. One thing is that I live in a small town and the only two models of SSD available locally are based on a Sandforce controller. The Kingston HyperX 3k SSD series is my favorite of these as it has reads and writes over 500 MB/s. The Kingston V300 is an economy drive that in my opinion isn't worth much but it is also Sandforce and available locally. Anything above 240-256GB and I will need to order it in anyway.

Here are some SSDs I have updated on an Intel chipset without problem. Samsung 840 and 840 Pro, Crucial M500, Intel (forget which one), and a few others. Sandforce is definitely still out there. It isn't a brand of SSD but the make of the controller. I would be like buying an ASUS motherboard but it really uses an Intel chipset.

Sandforce is used in some speedy SSDs. It is also used in a lot of cheapos like the PNY Optima, Kingston v300, and others. Some do view it as a second rate product for this reason. I have a tendency to view AMD as a second tier CPU because of all the Wal-Mart junk I service with them although I know they make some very nice CPUs.

Conor

- Collapse -
I haven't shopped in town for about a decade.
Jan 20, 2015 8:37AM PST

I find what's on the shelf is often out of date gear. Some folk don't have access like we do in the USA.
Bob

- Collapse -
Sometimes you need it FAST!
Jan 20, 2015 9:14AM PST

Sometimes you have a customer that needs their computer repaired FAST, otherwise they will just go buy another one. For same day or overnight service, finding one locally is the key. The Kingston HyperX 3K is not an old product. It is currently their top tier product so I know people will be happy with it. The Kingston HyperX 3k has very respectable specs. See http://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/hyperx#sh103s3 The one issue I have with this drive is it doesn't fit in slim laptops or many netbooks that require a 7mm drive.

For a cop or firefighter who dropped their computer and crashed the HDD and needs it repaired ASAP, this is a good option. I tell them that dropping their laptop will never crash the hard drive again.

I do usually keep a couple SSDs on hand. One in the 128 GB class and another in the 256GB class. I have NEVER had anyone request a larger one and in all honesty, it is rarely needed. I hate to keep too many of a depreciating asset on hand. I am sure you understand. Especially when people want the cheapest possible and are willing to have a used hard drive installed and such. They bought them at Wal-Mart so they should be cheap to repair. It isn't always that way.

Conor

- Collapse -
I would definitely swap to an SSD if I end up using this
Jan 20, 2015 8:43AM PST

I am a HUGE fan of SSD technology and find it hard to use a computer with a traditional hard drive. If this computer ever finds its way into primary service, I will definitely install an SSD.

For now, it is just something to play around with. The Celeron you have in that Asus is an Ivy Bridge while the one that came in mine is a Sandy. Sure, it isn't a big deal but for $25, why not upgrade. It was a free laptop I kinda view as a disposable anyway so why not have fun and make it as good as it can be? I seem to recall the upgraded CPU having close to double the power of the old one.

Conor

- Collapse -
Answer
Am I reading this wrong or is it...
Jan 20, 2015 9:56AM PST
- Collapse -
No, correct.
Jan 20, 2015 11:28AM PST

This is the CPU socket used in the HM70 laptop. This chipset is limited although somewhat artificially. The HM77 is the full blown Ivy Bridge. You could also put the Celeron and Pentium Dual core in those but they also take the Core i series.

Conor

- Collapse -
Answer
There is a workaround
Nov 17, 2015 2:43AM PST

I ordered a replacement motherboard and they sent me the wrong one with the HM70 chipset. I don't know how to turn off the shutdown, but if you put the computer to sleep the clock resets, so I created a batch file that counts down and puts the computer to sleep every 28 minutes. It works this way, so it doesn't do the hard shutdown but goes to sleep, which takes about 3 seconds, and you can immediately wake it by moving the mouse. I plan to write a java program to count down in the notifications area, instead of having the batch file running in the command prompt which is not so nice.

- Collapse -
That is a start but by now means perfect
Nov 17, 2015 12:28PM PST

I recently had another one of these lower end HM70 laptops left behind. I upgraded it with the 2030M chips as I did before and am done with it. This one actually has a USB 3.0 port or two and is a touch screen although I never plan to use that. It is another Wal-Mart special of course and is as cheap as they come. Systems like this play 1080P movies just fine and make great media computers to be tucked away somewhere. They won't last if you bounce them around long as I think some fast food containers are made better than this thing.

As for the workaround to put your computer to sleep every 28 minutes, there are some things that this would be a major inconvenience for. Why have a higher end I series CPU and have it so handicapped? I would rather stick the Pentium 2030M in there and put the better CPU in something else.

- Collapse -
Okay
Dec 27, 2015 7:37AM PST

My laptop is a high end Core i7 sony, it's really not a walmart laptop,
It cost me about a thousand dollars, so downgrading to some pentium would really suck for me. Chinese a.holes on Aliexpress sent me the wrong motherboard. Warning to others, never order from China if any complaints exist against the seller. They do not follow international norms of business. I'm looking into hacking the BIOS now.

- Collapse -
That is not good.
Dec 27, 2015 8:03AM PST

Yes, I would be unhappy if I was sent a replacement MB with that handicapped chipset. I didn't understand that you had a high end unit and just assumed it was something on the lower end. Sorry.

Unfortunately there is no BIOS hack for this chipset. This limitation is hard burned into the hardware. I would insist on a different replacement MB. If you used a credit card you can do a chargeback since you didn't get the item you ordered.